Most of us have 100's of files that have earned that much.

You can prove that? Most of us?
Depends who the 'us' are that you are defining, I guess. Without 'us' being defined, the sweeping statement is meaningless.

Quote from: ShadySue on June 21, 2015, 13:22

Quote from: tickstock on June 21, 2015, 10:48

Most of us have 100's of files that have earned that much.

You can prove that? Most of us?
Depends who the 'us' are that you are defining, I guess. Without 'us' being defined, the sweeping statement is meaningless.

Many of us, average annual income is $17,000 with 3500 images so it stands to reason that most people here have lots of $150 earning files if they've been around a few years.

I presume you're referring to the annual survey? A lot of people seem to crawl out of the woodwork to do that, so I'm not sure that 'most of us' can refer to 'most of the people who post in msg', which is kinda what is implied without being spelled out in that phrase. In fact, a few huge earners could bias that survey a lot. Or a lot of liars.

I think tickstock is right. When I was exclusive making more than 500$ /image was very easy with hundreds over 100$ many dozens over 1000$ and a few over 10k. I would say that now it is much more difficult on Istock and for sure as an independent with my short experience......I would say it is impossible to make 5 figures with any photo nowadays in microstock..............

Quote from: ShadySue on June 21, 2015, 11:34

Quote from: tickstock on June 21, 2015, 11:32

Quote from: ShadySue on June 21, 2015, 11:28

Quote from: tickstock on June 21, 2015, 10:59

Quote from: ShadySue on June 21, 2015, 10:00

Quote from: tickstock on June 21, 2015, 09:56

So what?  $300 is way too low you'll make more than that on most good photos.

Not so much nowadays; we're not all as super successful as you claim to be.
(Not including the OP in 'we', I have no idea, obviously.)

You don't have to be that successful to make $150 on an image.  15-20 regular sales,  or about 2 ELs, or 60 subs will get you there or 1 El 5 regular sales and 15 subs.  That doesn't seem too difficult to reach.

Maybe not on DT, I couldn't say.
On files uploaded since late 2012 on iS, it seems just about impossible to get any sales at all. You seem to be about the only exception to that rule.

If it's better for nonexclusives then it should be even easier to get to $150.  I might be one of the last exclusives to still be coming to this site, the people that used to come here have stopped.

There are a few more of us still here.
I'm not sure it's really better on iS for indies. I don't see their new uploads flooding out as real sales either, and at the insulting percentage they get, I doubt many of them find it easy to get to $150, certainly not without spending at least that much to make the images. Profit is more important than gross takings.

I'm not talking about nonexclusive on iStock, I'm talking about nonexclusive on all the sites.  Most people here say you make more as a nonexclusive so it should be very easy to make $150 if the image is good.

Good work still earns good money.

Or a lot of liars.

What would be the point in lying if you are anonymous?  Showing off is pointless if nobody knows who you are.

Quote from: ShadySue on June 21, 2015, 13:38

Or a lot of liars.

What would be the point in lying if you are anonymous?  Showing off is pointless if nobody knows who you are.

Someone relatively recently said in a thread here that he always lies in  the poll.
I guess a posse could be got together to bump up or  push down figures for any number of reasons, though the ones I can think of right now would be more productive on the monthly poll than the annual one.

I don't remember that, who said they always lie in the poll?

Do you really keep a record of who says what?

Quote from: ShadySue on June 22, 2015, 16:04

Quote from: tickstock on June 22, 2015, 12:43

I don't remember that, who said they always lie in the poll?

Do you really keep a record of who says what?

No but I don't remember anyone saying they lie about what they enter into the poll, that is a person and post I would remember though.

I was totally unsurprised, so I remembered the post, not the person.

Quote from: ShadySue on June 21, 2015, 13:38

Or a lot of liars.

What would be the point in lying if you are anonymous?  Showing off is pointless if nobody knows who you are.

Showing off is pointless, period.  Doesn't stop people though...

There are multiple factors to consider when determining a good price:

- How well is the image doing for you? What do you expect to earn in a lifetime? (taking into account shelf life: 3 yrs, 5 yrs... perhaps more?)
- Is it a unique image or a very common one?
- Who is the potential buyer: a small start up business or a large corporation? (Which you probably don't know.)

I consider $300 way too low for the full rights, especially if you get only 50% of that price.
I once asked a price of about $650. It wasn't a particularly well performing image. They accepted. It was a direct request by e-mail so I got to keep the full 100% on that sale. Afterwards I got the feeling I could have asked more.

I've had another image sale (via an agency) which netted me more than that. The agency did the negotiations and asked a few thousand dollars. I was baffled to hear they accepted, but it goes to show there are buyers who are willing to pay.

Sure, most buyers will be scared off, but if you're going too low you're leaving money on the table. The way you value your images may be different than the way they value them. So don't be too scared to negotiate and don't undervalue your work.

I had a request via dreamstime and never heard back, I think I priced it at $500. Maybe they thought they'd get it for $50

May I know most of the agencies, like Istock,canstockphoto,fotolia,pixta, can remove photo by ourself or need to contact them to remove?Thanks

Depends. At some agencies you can delete them yourself, some agencies have to be contacted by e-mail, but I had no problems deactivating the images.
Better check it yourself before any such sale takes place, so you can act timely.